- Leaks at the driver door. Apparently the plastic sheet fixed in the door panel was not sealed properly. Was fixed for free under warranty.

At 10,000KM

- Warranty claim again for the steering rack. Apparently after few thousand KM the steering rack makes the same knocking noise again.

- Front left door leaking. Same problem as the driver side. The plastic sheet was not fitted properly causing water to leak into the cabin. Was fixed under warranty.

At 15,000KM

- Disc brake claim again.

- Steering rack claim again.

- Disc brake caliper claim. Apparently it has some slack in it.

- Auto gearbox has some minor oil seepage at the top of the casing. Taken off and resealed under warranty.

At 20,000KM

- Gearbox had a huge MAJOR leak! The oil leaked and drained completely after 2 days! Had the car towed to Perodua's dealer and fixed. The seals at the gear control device located below the gear box broke. I was told by the dealer that this could be due to the improper repair works done by them when I first fixed my gearbox minor leakage previously. Said sorry to me numerous times and was fixed under warranty.

At 25,000KM

- Disc brake claim again

- Steering rack claim again.

Now that I had this car for two years and have done about 34,000KM now... I find that the plastic fittings in the car is going bad. Making all sorts of vibrating noises here and there. Basically its all front the rear. I have not found a solution for this YET.

General Comments:

Basically, this is a good car to have... however due to the BAD BAD QC by Perodua... I have my doubts.

Engine performance is not bad. It is not a race car / performance oriented car so I can't compare much with my previous 1.5 litre civic. The pickup is superb. However, the auto tranny makes it slower. The gear change reaction time is pretty bad / sluggish. Especially felt when you need the gears to change immediately during over taking!! Sometimes I get irritated that I just manually shift the auto gear to get the gear that I want.

Handling at stock suspension is pretty crappy. If you turn hard enough you would actually feel that the rear is wobbling. I had installed a set of performance low springs to solve this. However, as with all performance oriented low springs, it is more uncomfortable.

Interior cabin space and design is superb. No further comments on this.

PERODUA should look into these serious QC problems and fix it. Or else, the general public would look at Perodua and says that its like Proton now.

3rd Apr 2008, 05:14

I am well qualified to comment on this, now owning a Daihatsu Sirion which shares the same basic design and having owned a Peroudua Myvi 1.3 SXi for 12 months, then passing it onto my Parents who still own it.

See my report on 2007 Myvi 1.3 SXi, which underlines all of the teething issues due to poor quality control at Perodua.

The Sirion and Myvi are very similar in most respects, with the Myvi having some extra equipment at a lower price (LED rear lights, plusher trim, indicators in mirrors, free metallic paint and mudflaps etc) but the difference in the overall quality is hugely different.

The Myvi is now at 16,000 miles and after the initial QC faults were rectified, we have had issues with vibrating/warped front discs, endless interior light switch faults which means the doors keep locking, paint has flaked off the rear seat fixing bars, we have various trim rattles, two lights mist up occasionally and the exterior paint is very easily scratched.

The Sirion was delivered with ZERO faults or QC issues, and has NO faults even now. The finish and build quality is markedly better as better Japanese sourced parts are used throughout, instead of poor quality Malaysian parts. The boot struts are a case in point as they have already been replaced on the Myvi, and have have given up again so the bootlid does not rise. The Sirion uses a better quality strut which fires the boot open and holds it firm.

All being said, the Perodua dealers are excellent and the car is very good value and very nice to use.

I myself have no concerns over the long-term reliablity of the fundamental parts of the Myvi, but do think that the finish will deteriorate and various minor problems will come up.

The Daihatsu is a far better car, with hugely different build and parts quality, and is much easier to live with having extras like a boot light, clock, parcel shelf strings, better and more supportive front seats, a better glove box set up and also ISOFIX and side airbags, as well as verified crash test results of 4* NCAP.

The fact that the Daihatsu comes with a five year unlimited mileage warranty and breakdown cover against the Perodua three year 36,000 mile warranty and two year breakdown deal says it all.

I like the Myvi and do not regret buying it, but would always recommend the Daihatsu as being the better and more reliable long-term prospect, with a better warranty, back-up and far superior resale values.